Making people aware of your product or service is obviously crucial. Without brand awareness, there are no sales, since pretty much every business needs to make some noise. In an ideal world, that means leverage word-of-mouth marketing. But at the very least, brand awareness requires creating a buzz.
The trouble is, many of the techniques that companies use to create brand awareness are a bit tired. Some strategies still work a bit, but ultimately, consumers are used to certain methods and are tuning out to a lot of content.
When that happens and things feel like they’re stagnating, it’s time to get a little creative. As such, here are 3 unusual ways of creating brand awareness in today’s world…
Go local
Chances are you’re not tapping into the vast potential that’s right on your doorstep. Engage with your local community by using billboards, flyers, posters and the like. And don’t pepper the consumer with sales patter; be intriguing instead. Think about treasure hunts, not discounts.
The key word here is engagement. Consumers are naturally more predisposed to engaging with a local business, so you’ve already got one foot in the door, so to speak.
Reach out to influencers
If your brand doesn’t have much pull, then why not hook up with someone or some company that does?
Every market and every niche has a collection of people or entities that are both highly visible and very influential. The trick is to uncover any opportunities where you can collaborate on something mutually beneficial.
Brand something timely
From umbrellas to popcorn, sunglasses to sandwiches, everyone loves free stuff. So perhaps you could capitalise on this, brand a product and create awareness that way?
Whether you’re making the most of summer or simply helping feed the masses at lunch time, planning is the order of the day.
The crucial thing with handing out freebies is having a good attention to detail. Make sure there’s a clear connection between your business and the gift. It can’t be too random. At the end of the day, the partnership must make sense and has to be identifiable to the public.
In short, the better the planning, the more memorable you’ll be.
Hotcow is a non-traditional creative agency that specialises in experiential marketing that goes viral. Our campaigns generate buzz through crowd participation, PR and content sharing. Contact us on 0207 5030442 or email us on info@hotcow.co.uk.
